1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing device used for manufacturing a semiconductor device, a liquid crystal display device, a solar battery, and the like, more particularly to a substrate processing device such as a CVD (chemical vapor deposition) device, an etching device, an ashing device, and a sputtering device.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the substrate used for a liquid crystal display device becomes larger, the size of substrate processing devices such as a CVD device, an etching device, an ashing device, and a sputtering device increases correspondingly. Therefore, in the case of a plasma processing device of a parallel plate type, for example, it is becoming more and more difficult to perform a uniform process for the entire surface of a substrate.
As a method for solving this problem, a substrate processing device that consecutively processes a substrate while conveying it through an elongated linear-shaped processing zone has been suggested as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 8-279498. The substrate processing device having such an elongated linear-shaped processing zone is shown in FIG. 6.
As shown in FIG. 6, in a substrate processing device 600 having an elongated linear-shaped processing zone 10, a substrate holder 3 carrying a substrate 4 is conveyed through a vacuum chamber 1 by a conveyor mechanism 5 while the substrate 4 is heated by a heating section 2.
On the other hand, an excitation gas introduced from an excitation gas introduction nozzle 6 is excited by an RF electrode 8 through a dielectric window 16. Also, a reaction gas is introduced by a reaction gas introduction nozzle 7. The excitation gas and the reaction gas pass through the processing zone 10 so as to be discharged from a vacuum discharge outlet 9 positioned parallel to the processing zone 10. When the substrate 4 passes through the processing zone 10 containing the excitation gas and the reaction gas as the surface of the substrate 4 is consecutively processed.
However, in the substrate processing device 600 described above, when the substrate 4 and the substrate holder 3 pass through the processing zone 10, spatial changes occur within the processing zone 10 due to the substrate 4 and the substrate holder 3 taking respectively different positions as shown in FIGS. 7A through 7C. Accordingly, the direction and rate of the flow of the processing gas near the surface of the substrate 4 may vary correspondingly. This results in a problem in that that the substrate 4 may be subjected to non-uniform processing, for example.
Moreover, because the processing gas diffuses to areas other than the processing zone 10, reaction components may adhere to be deposited as dust on the inner walls, observation window, and the like of the vacuum chamber 1.
FIGS. 7A , 7B, and 7C, sequentially, illustrate how the substrate 4 is conveyed.